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“On the positive side, we’re both OK, under the circumstances. The living quarters are fine, the fire alarms work and everyone is safe.”

The pub is the only one in the area owned by Yorkshire’s oldest brewery, Samuel Smith’s, whose estate of around 200 pub is mostly in the former mill, mine and steel towns in the north of England, although they also have several in London.

The fire at The Abbey pub in Darley Abbey, Derby

Determinedly traditional, Smiths still serve their flagship beer, Old Brewery Bitter, from wooden casks and deliver them with horse-drawn drays in their home town of Tadcaster, deeming it cost-effective to do so.

They have a strong reputation for preserving and enhancing the older pubs in their estate and do not have music or TVs in their pubs.

But they also have a keen pricing policy, defying the status quo in the trade by selling Old Brewery Bitter at £2 a pint.